Celtic knot Tree of Life, part ten . . .

There was a lot to do on this piece, and rather than stop at every step along the way and write a blog post, I decided to put ’em all together in one.

I had finished stitching the Tree of Life knot, last time:

Complete knot stitched (angled)

After that, I stitched the text:

“My Pulse” (in Gaelic)“My Heart” (in Gaelic)

Next, I stitched the oval frame around the knot and text, and stitched the four corner knots:

Corner knot

I debated whether or not to quilt in the open spaces of the piece. I chose to NOT fill the open spaces with quilting, in order to focus attention on the stitched areas.

When I originally bought the fabric for the piece, I neglected to buy enough for the back. Unfortunately, when I went back to the store two days later, the fabric had been sold out (dammit!!). I bought white linen for the back.

Of course, this meant I had no matching fabric for binding . . .

What to do?

I folded the front fabric back, exposing the batting and backing, and trimmed it one inch from the fabric fold:

Batting and backing trimmed

Next, I opened out the fabric and trimmed it one inch from the backing and batting:

Front trimmed

Now comes the laborious part . . .

I’m gonna fold and press the fabric, then fold the fabric to the back, and stitch in place. The front fabric becomes its own binding, and there will be nothing showing on the front but the stitched design.

The next (and last) photo you see will be of the completed piece, right before I ship it off to its new home!!